coin

 
Pronunciation: /kɔɪn/

noun

  • a flat disc or piece of metal with an official stamp, used as money: she opened her purse and took out a coin gold and silver coins
  • [mass noun] money in the form of coins: large amounts of coin and precious metal
  • (coins) one of the suits in some tarot packs, corresponding to pentacles in others.

verb

[with object]
  • 1make (coins) by stamping metal: guineas and half-guineas were coined
  • make (metal) into coins.
  • British informal earn a lot of (money) quickly and easily: the company was coining it in at the rate of £90 a second
  • 2invent (a new word or phrase): he coined the term ‘desktop publishing’

Phrases

the other side of the coin

the opposite aspect of a matter: many jobs have been lost, but the other side of the coin is that firms may now be hiring more workers

pay someone back in their own coin

retaliate by similar behaviour: paying Diane back in her own coin always seemed to backfire

to coin a phrase

said when introducing a new expression or a variation on a familiar one, or ironically to show one’s awareness that one is using a hackneyed expression: she was, to coin a phrase, swept off her feet

Origin:

Middle English: from Old French coin 'wedge, corner, die', coigner 'to mint', from Latin cuneus 'wedge'. The original sense was 'cornerstone', later 'angle or wedge' (senses now spelled quoin); in late Middle English the term denoted a die for stamping money, or a piece of money produced by such a die